Save Plan B Powder For Fda

February 23, 2006

Women should have access to the drug known as Plan B, the so-called morning-after pill, which prevents pregnancy in most cases if taken within 72 hours of unprotected sex. And they should be able to have that legal drug without a prescription, as women in many other countries do.

As timing is critical to the drug's effectiveness, women should not have to wait for a doctor's appointment to get a prescription. Above all, no woman should have to explain why she wants the drug. Her sexual history is no one's business.

The pill does not cause abortion, as some opponents insist; it is a contraceptive. As such, it prevents the need for abortion, which is a women's right by law.

Yet approval has been withheld for the over-the-counter version of Plan B, despite its being found safe and effective after review by advisory committees to the U.S. Food and Drug Administration. The decision to reject the application was made by top food and drug administrators under pressure from conservatives before a proper review was even completed. This is a disgraceful breach of public responsibility. The Courant has editorialized many times that science, not religious or political ideology, should be the basis for the federal government judging whether a drug is safe to be sold in America.

Had Plan B been approved for sale without prescription, the state might not be opening the can of worms now being discussed in the General Assembly. A bill is being proposed would require all Connecticut hospitals that receive public funds to dispense emergency contraceptives to rape victims they treat. The mandate would include Roman Catholic hospitals, including St. Francis in Hartford.

It is neither necessary nor fair to force these church-based institutions to go against their fundamental beliefs. In 80 percent of Connecticut hospitals, a woman will be offered emergency contraception, according to rape crisis experts. The Catholic hospitals say it is their policy to inform rape victims where they can receive emergency contraception.

A protracted, no-win ideological fight between those who believe women have the right to legal medications and those who view Plan B as tantamount to abortion is a waste of energy. A better way for state leaders to help rape victims is to insist that the FDA do its job and permit emergency contraceptives to be sold over the counter.